If it's a news item about something that is indistinguishable from magic, try here.

*If discussion prolonged enough to become newthreadworthy, it can easily be split out into a new thread by the mods. Simply report the first post on the subject, and request that the thread to be split out.

Technically, it's free speech. On the one hand, if you don't believe in a freedom for the people you don't like you don't believe in said freedom in the first place. On the other hand, if the freedom ends up being twisted into "restrict others' freedoms", empty platitudes are just that, and I don't feel any remorse if the courts trample all over those "rights".

CorruptUser wrote:Technically, it's free speech. On the one hand, if you don't believe in a freedom for the people you don't like you don't believe in said freedom in the first place. On the other hand, if the freedom ends up being twisted into "restrict others' freedoms", empty platitudes are just that, and I don't feel any remorse if the courts trample all over those "rights".

Yes, there are authoritarian groups out there seeking to use democratic elections/freedoms to gain power, but this isn't why they were acquitted. The court stated that the law is used only for nazis. They weren't nazis, so the law didn't apply. Not quite sure how this is humorous though.

The law was originally created to target neo-nazis, but you don't have to be one to be hit by it, just using a uniform that is in the article's words "suggestively militant or intimidating". So while the "Sharia Police" are giant piles of excrement, their uniforms weren't illegal, therefore they were acquitted.

Yeah I get why they were acquitted based on this particular law, but what about other laws? Surely intimidation is illegal, with or without uniforms. I suppose if people are allowed to call themselves 'fashion police' and tell people what to wear, then you should be allowed to call yourself 'sharia police' and tell people not to gamble. But you should never be allowed to do so in a way that resembles actual police, or in an intimidating way.

Also this is Germany, not the United States. There are far more restrictions on speech in Germany. I'm surprised this kind of stuff doesn't fall under the ban on spreading hate.

It's one of those irregular verbs, isn't it? I have an independent mind, you are an eccentric, he is round the twist- Bernard Woolley in Yes, Prime Minister

TLDR: in late 2015, a kickstarter group tried to make a card game about the Presidential Election. The above article covers a lot of ground... such as China vs US manufacturing, Kickstarter optimism, the nature of debt, the efficacy of marketing... a lot of the stuff that may come in handy when running a business.

A single dose of psilocybin, the active ingredient of magic mushrooms, can lift the anxiety and depression experienced by people with advanced cancer for six months or even longer, two new studies show.

Researchers involved in the two trials in the United States say the results are remarkable. The volunteers had “profoundly meaningful and spiritual experiences” which made most of them rethink life and death, ended their despair and brought about lasting improvement in the quality of their lives.

Around 40-50% of newly diagnosed cancer patients suffer some sort of depression or anxiety. Antidepressants have little effect, particularly on the “existential” depression that can lead some to feel their lives are meaningless and contemplate suicide.

The main findings of the NYU study, which involved 29 patients, and the larger one from Johns Hopkins University with 51 patients, that a single dose of the medication can lead to immediate reduction in the depression and anxiety caused by cancer and that the effect can last up to eight months, “is unprecedented,” said Ross. “We don’t have anything like it.”

The results of the studies were very similar, with around 80% of the patients attributing moderately or greatly improved wellbeing or life satisfaction to a single high dose of the drug, given with psychotherapy support.

Professor Roland Griffiths, of the departments of psychiatry and neuroscience who led the study at Johns Hopkins University school of medicine, said he did not expect the findings, which he described as remarkable. “I am bred as a sceptic. I was sceptical at the outset that this drug could produce long-lasting changes,” he said. These were people “facing the deepest existential questions that humans can encounter - what is the nature of life and death, the meaning of life.”

But the results were similar to those they had found in earlier studies in healthy volunteers. “In spite of their unique vulnerability and the mood disruption that the illness and contemplation of their death has prompted, these participants have the same kind of experiences, that are deeply meaningful, spiritually significant and producing enduring positive changes in life and mood and behaviour,” he said.

Governments need to get over their puritanical fear of mind altering drugs - as well as end this nonsensical division between 'acceptable' mood altering drugs and 'unacceptable' ones...

Mutex wrote:Pretty sure that's a hoax? I don't see any mention of it anywhere else. And it was posted three days ago.

It seems to pass the smell-test however.

Major companies have switched to Linux (Red Hat or Ubuntu), and the smaller tech-savvy companies have switched to Illumos (a fork of OpenSolaris). Ever since Oracle pulled an "Oracle" and close-sourced Solaris (wtf?) its been on a dying trend.

When Linux on Sparc outruns Solaris on Sparc... it really makes you wonder... why not just use Linux?

This was a speech short on slogans and snappy soundbites. If there was a theme, then it was one of unity.

It was a call to Russians to pull together as patriots, in what Vladimir Putin admitted were still extraordinary, tough economic times.

He has long tried to achieve that by highlighting Russia's external enemies. But with a potential US ally now on his way to the White House - and perhaps sniffing an end to sanctions - Mr Putin has toned down his rhetoric.

In fact, he pushed international affairs right to the end of his speech and talked of needing friends, not enemies.

I can't find a source right now, but I've heard Russia will run out of their oil money "under the mattress" in about a year if nothing changes.

BBC wrote:Avoiding anti-Western rhetoric - by Sarah Rainsford in Moscow:This was a speech short on slogans and snappy soundbites. If there was a theme, then it was one of unity.It was a call to Russians to pull together as patriots, in what Vladimir Putin admitted were still extraordinary, tough economic times.He has long tried to achieve that by highlighting Russia's external enemies. But with a potential US ally now on his way to the White House - and perhaps sniffing an end to sanctions - Mr Putin has toned down his rhetoric.In fact, he pushed international affairs right to the end of his speech and talked of needing friends, not enemies.

I can't find a source right now, but I've heard Russia will run out of their oil money "under the mattress" in about a year if nothing changes.

You're probably referring to one of their many many reserve/rainy day funds.http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 13236.htmlThey have additional funds, like their pension/long term funds as well ad their currency reserves and SRDs. It's not pretty, but you need to think of it this way. Russia budgets for $50/barrel oil. Compare that to oil's price averaged across the year. That's how bad/good Russia is doing.

It's largely a ceremonial position, but hopefully it heralds general defeat for the Freedom Party in coming elections.

Austria, of all places.

There's a certain amount of freedom involved in cycling: you're self-propelled and decide exactly where to go. If you see something that catches your eye to the left, you can veer off there, which isn't so easy in a car, and you can't cover as much ground walking.

Mutex wrote:You could drive to work and have your entire music collection with you to listen to.

Only if your music collection is tiny.

To bring along a recording of all speech ever spoken by every human being ever you'd need nearly half a million of such trucks. So clearly this truck is utterly insufficient.

I hear you. We clearly need to think bigger. An artificial satellite, perhaps? Not sure how we're going to hook up to it, but Amazon will think of something. Might need something better than USB, though. Plus, while we're at it, we could put one of those big laser thingies on it. Store all human knowledge and deal with that pesky Rebel Alliance at the same time!

Christina Maslach is a professor of psychology at Berkeley. She's been studying burnout for years. She says companies often look at it wrong.

CHRISTINA MASLACH: To somehow characterize it as it's something within the person. All the research is pointing to the fact it's something about the situation, the social relationships, the job.

The article goes on to describe how one small company's call center has been fighting burnout and managed to reduce their employee attrition rate.

Figured this would be useful info for anyone who's seeing burnout in their offices, or feeling it themselves.

We're in the traffic-chopper over the XKCD boards where there's been a thread-derailment. A Liquified Godwin spill has evacuated threads in a fourty-post radius of the accident, Lolcats and TVTropes have broken free of their containers. It is believed that the Point has perished.

CorruptUser wrote:Jobs are like girlfriends/boyfriends. Interviews are dating. If people keep quitting you, the problem is you, not them.

It's quite rare nowadays that you are dependent on your spouse's monies to eat and have a roof over your head, and that's a situation which creates a possibility for terrible relationship, especially so if the spouse considers you an exchangeable tool for their purposes.

CorruptUser wrote:Jobs are like girlfriends/boyfriends. Interviews are dating. If people keep quitting you, the problem is you, not them.

It's quite rare nowadays that you are dependent on your spouse's monies to eat and have a roof over your head, and that's a situation which creates a possibility for terrible relationship, especially so if the spouse considers you an exchangeable tool for their purposes.

Your analogy starts to breakdown since most spouses don't run background or immigration checks. Or are especially biased against felons.